The term-limited Daniels, who ruled out a White House run last year, slammed Obama for promoting “pro-poverty” extremism and leading a “constant effort to divide us.”

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A former budget director under George W. Bush, Daniels was chosen by Republican leaders as a respected and serious voice who could credibly position the party as the champion of business.

“As Republicans, our first concern is for those waiting tonight to begin or resume the climb up life’s ladder,” Daniels said. “We do not accept that ours will ever be a nation of haves and have-nots; we must always be a nation of haves and soon-to-haves.”

Daniels also assailed the president for halting the Keystone XL pipeline project that would transport oil from Canada to Texas, equating the move to a “pro-poverty policy” — a line reminiscent of Newt Gingrich’s accusations on the campaign trail that Obama is the “food stamp president”

“The extremism that stifles the development of homegrown energy, or cancels a perfectly safe pipeline that would employ tens of thousands, or jacks up consumer utility bills for no improvement in either human health or world temperature, is a pro-poverty policy,” Daniels said, calling for a “passionate pro-growth approach.”

His delivery was rigid and subdued, but the language was notably charged — especially for Daniels, who is widely respected for his even-tempered and pragmatic nature.

But the Republican appeared to channel some of the anger and energy that’s fueling his party as it works its way through a chaotic nominating process to pick a candidate to oppose Obama.

While the president chided those who believe “America is in decline” in his speech, Daniels painted a much darker picture of the country.

“On these evenings, presidents naturally seek to find the sunny side of our national condition. But when President Obama claims that the state of our union is anything but grave, he must know in his heart that this is not true,” he said.

He also pushed back on the president’s claim that congressional Republicans were a roadblock preventing economic progress.

“It’s not fair and it’s not true for the president to attack Republicans in Congress as obstacles on these questions. They and they alone have passed bills to reduce borrowing, reform entitlements and encourage new job creation, only to be shot down time and time again by the president and his Democratic Senate allies,” said Daniels, who argued that 2012 should be the year Washington proves its critics wrong.

“No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others. As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat,” Daniels said.

Daniels’s moment in the spotlight coincides with rising anxiety among Republican insiders about Mitt Romney’s chances and Gingrich’s temperament.

The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol has led the charge on the “Draft Daniels” movement, writing just this week that Romney and Gingrich’s attacks on each other “further swelled the groundswell of support” for a Daniels candidacy.

Indiana Democrats weren’t as impressed, saying that Daniels “picked a bad time to raise his national profile.”

“Indiana’s unemployment rate has climbed higher than the national average. His opposition to the auto rescue could have cost Indiana more than 147,000 jobs. He flip-flopped on right-to-work legislation. And his attempts to brand himself a fiscal conservative have been called stunningly fraudulent,” said state Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker.